Surface charge density determines the efficiency of cationic gemini surfactant based lipofection.

The efficiencies of the binary liposomes composed of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine and cationic gemini surfactant, (2S,3R)-2,3-dimethoxy-1,4-bis(N-hexadecyl-N,N-dimethylammonium)butane dibromide as transfection vectors, were measured using the enhanced green fluorescent protein coding plasmid and COS-1 cells. Strong correlation between the transfection efficiency and lipid stoichiometry was observed. Accordingly, liposomes with X(SR-1) > or = 0.